Four editorial boards at major publications are calling on President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race after his debate performance on Thursday.
The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, have all called for Biden to drop out of the race against former President Donald Trump in time for someone to replace him at the top of the ticket.
In a piece from the New York Times editorial board titled “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race,” the editorial board makes the argument that Biden should drop out for the “future of American democracy.”
“Donald Trump has proved himself to be a significant jeopardy to that democracy — an erratic and self-interested figure unworthy of the public trust. He systematically attempted to undermine the integrity of elections,” the Times editorial board wrote.
The NYT editorial board wrote that Biden’s argument that he is the “candidate with the best chance of taking on this threat of tyranny and defeating it” because he beat Trump in 2020 is no “longer a sufficient rationale” for why the president should be the 2024 Democratic nominee.
“At Thursday’s debate, the president needed to convince the American public that he was equal to the formidable demands of the office he is seeking to hold for another term. Voters, however, cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago,” they continued.
The Wall Street Journal called Biden’s performance at the debate “painful,” saying, “President Biden’s halting, stumbling debate performance Thursday night showed all too clearly that he isn’t up to serving four more years in office.”
“The President’s faltering effort allowed Mr. Trump to win the debate despite a mediocre performance in his own right,” the editorial board wrote.
The WSJ said that the “bitter” truth for Democrats following the debate was that Trump’s record could not matter if Biden is the party nominee.
“Mr. Trump at least looked vigorous and reminded voters of the pre-Covid economy. Mr. Biden looked like a feeble man no American should want going head to head with Mr. Putin or China’s Xi Jinping,” they wrote.
“One inevitable question is why those closest to Mr. Biden let him run again. We and many others warned them. It was clearly a selfish act for him to seek a second term. But did they really think they could hide his decline from the public for an entire election campaign? It’s hard to believe they wanted this early debate as a way to change the campaign in their favor,” the board continued.
The editorial board at the Chicago Tribune called the entire debate “awful,” pointing to Biden and Trump’s nearly minute-long debate about who had a better golf swing.
“Send in the clowns. Don’t bother; they’re here,” the board wrote, adding, “Unpacking precisely what happened Thursday, and why it happened, will take America some time. The Insta-pundits are now just an echo chamber. Americans don’t need partisan analyses of something they saw with their own eyes.”
The editorial board said Biden staying in the race was “ridiculous”
“Biden was an encapsulation of what many Americans have come to know very well as they care for aged parents, partners, friends, grandparents and colleagues: a man now struggling to maintain a line of thought and keep track of complex facts, a man who gets flustered under deadline pressure, a man who has become vulnerable and yet, at the same time, far less self-aware,” it wrote.
“Everyone sees that now. Everyone sees that the Democratic Party, which effectively closed down the primaries, and the White House, which painted a picture of fictional cognitive vitality, have been covering up a reality that they must have seen but clearly wished were otherwise,” the editorial board wrote.
They called upon Biden to be a single-term president and step down.
“Biden, if we’ve not made that clear, should announce that he will be a single-term president who now has seen the light when it comes to his own capabilities in the face of the singular demands of being the president of the United States. He can do so with honor, but he is the only person who can do so,” the editorial board wrote.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said it was time for Biden to “pass the torch” to another Democrat calling upon precedent.
“The unfortunate truth is that Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century,” the editorial board wrote. “There is precedent for a president, duly elected by the American people, to step aside gracefully in the national interest.”
They called the president’s retirement “necessary,” and said “he failed to convey a competent and coherent vision for the future of America.”
“Aides claimed he had a cold. Vice President Kamala Harris argued the leader of the free world should be evaluated on the totality of his presidency, not one night. Former President Barack Obama took to social media and said, “Bad debate nights happen,” the editorial board wrote of the explanations many from Biden’s campaign have made of his debate performance.
“These responses are insulting to the American people,” they wrote.
“President Biden’s ability to withstand the mental and physical rigors of another four-year term would be of concern regardless of his opponent. The fact that he is all that stands in the way of Trump returning to the Oval Office significantly raises the stakes,” the AJC wrote.
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In contrast to other leading papers, the Philadelphia Inquirer called upon Trump to step down from the race while acknowledging Biden’s performance was a “disaster.”
“In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump,” The board wrote, adding, “To build himself up, Trump constantly tears the country down. There is no shining city on the hill. It’s just mourning in America.”
“Yes, Biden had a horrible night. He’s 81 and not as sharp as he used to be. But Biden on his worst day remains lightyears better than Trump on his best,” the editorial board wrote.
“We cannot be serious about letting such a crooked clown back in the White House,” they continued.